Holder of Anderson papers speaks out

Mark Feldstein is director of the journalism program at George Washington University in Washington, DC, but usually goes about his work out of the public eye.

Thanks to the latest — that we know about — government attempt to manipulate and intimidate journalists, he’s now in the spotlight.

Feldstein has been drawn into the controversy created by the FBI’s insistence on examining the papers of the late muckraking journalist Jack Anderson, papers that Anderson’s will directed be placed in the GWU library for public use. The FBI wants to yank anything it deems dicey from the collection, something it couldn’t do when Anderson was alive.

In a Chicago Tribune commentary headlined “Why you should care about press freedom,” he launched his story this way:

“Last month, as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, two FBI agents showed up at my home in suburban Washington, D.C., and waved their government-issued badges to demand access to decades-old historical archives that I have been reading.

“Why? Because they say these documents may — or may not — shed light on alleged leaks to a dead investigative reporter that may — or may no t– have occurred more than 20 years ago.

“This inept fishing expedition would be laughable if it were not part of a larger and more serious government assault on freedom of the press, the most systematic attack on free expression and the public’s right to know waged by any presidential administration since the infamous days of Richard Nixon.”

This is important stuff. As in important to the continuation of a free society.